Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), spoke during the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He called for effective taxation of international corporations.
According to the OECD Secretary-General, the possibility of paying underpaid taxes and profit from international corporations causes governments to seek savings by cutting social funds, pensions and insurance. This in turn leads to an increase in unemployment and also increases the risk of a social crisis. He firmly stated that this reduced citizens' confidence in the fairness of governments.
That is why it is unacceptable that multinationals can avoid paying taxes. Gurria assured that the OECD would soon finish its work on the amendment of the rules concerning the taxation of international corporations. They should guarantee not only fair taxation of profits but also full compliance with national rules.
According to the Secretary-General, the new rules will identify the actual beneficiaries, and information on transactions carried out by the corporation between the countries in which their activities are carried out will also have to be disclosed.
It is worth pointing out that regardless of the current OECD work, the Polish Ministry of Finance carries out work in the field of taxation of international optimization structures used to reduce tax burden. The most important change on this issue is to tax the income of controlled foreign companies (CFCs).
According to the proposed rules, the company is to be regarded as a controlled foreign company if at least 50% Its revenues will be so-called passive revenues (i.e.
income from the sale of shares or shares, dividends, receivables, interest and benefits on any loans, guarantees and guarantees and revenues from copyright and industrial property).
These regulations are also applicable when Polish companies have at least a foreign company 25% shares or 25% voting rights in the bodies of the company concerned, or 25% shares related to the right to participate in profits.
Thus, the fight against international optimization structures and attempts to seal the tax system continues, however, to be a proverbial battle against windmills. This is due to the fact that, instead of solutions that cease to be an effective form of optimization, new ones are created.